What we do

The project intends to look at membership as a relationship between supply and demand, the members and the party organization, in a dynamic perspective. We focus on two main questions: (1) Under which conditions and how do parties recruit and retain members, and (2) What’s happening inside parties once members have joined, and we link them to the general debate on party membership decline.

In answering these questions, our ambition is to contribute to the field on three aspects:
(1) To conduct the most ambitious data collection on party membership so far,
(2) To propose high-standard methodological tools in order to go beyond a static picture of party membership, and
(3) To renew our pool of theoretical models, moving away from traditional models of political participation.

Who is involved?

  • Project Director
    Emilie van Haute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Cevipol
  • Advisory Board 
    Susan Scarrow, University of Houston
    Steven Weldon, Simon Fraser University
    Paul Whiteley, Essex University
  • Country experts
Australia Anika Gauja University of Sydney
Austria Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik University of Vienna
Belgium Emilie van Haute Université libre de Bruxelles
Brazil Pedro Floriano Ribeiro Universidade Federal de São Carlos
Canada William Cross Carleton University
Croatia Bojana Kocijan Central European University
Cyprus Christophoros Christophorou University of Nicosia
Czech Republic Lukas Linek Czech Academy of Sciences
Denmark Karina Kosiara-Pedersen University of Copenhagen
Estonia Vello Pettai University of Tartu
Finland Jussi Westinen Åbo Akademi University
France Pascal Delwit Université libre de Bruxelles
Germany Tim Spier Universität Siegen
Hungary Zsolt Enyedi Central European University
Iceland Indridi Indridason University of California, Riverside
Ireland Liam Weeks University College Cork
Israel Ofer Kenig The Israel Democracy Institute
Italy Giulia Sandri Université catholique de Lille
Latvia Jānis Ikstens University of Latvia
Lithuania Mažvydas Jastramskis University of Vilnius
Mexico Viviens Sierens Université libre de Bruxelles
Netherlands Ruud Koole Leiden University
Joop van Holsteyn Leiden University
Josje den Ridder Leiden University
Gerrit Voerman University of Groningen
Norway Knut Heidar University of Oslo
Anders Ravik Jupskås University of Oslo
Poland Anna Paczesniak University of Wroclaw
Portugal Paula Espirito Santo Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa
Romania Sorina Soare Universita degli studi di Firenze
Alexandra Ionascu University of Bucharest
Slovakia Michal Zemanik University of Bratislava
Slovenia Alenka Krasovec University of Ljubljana
Spain Oscar Barberà Universitat de Valencia
Juan Rodriguez Teruel Universitat de Valencia
Sweden Niklas Bolin Mid Sweden University
Switzerland Andreas Ladner Université de Lausanne
United Kingdom Lynn Bennie University of Aberdeen
Australia Anika Gauja University of Sydney
Austria Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik University of Vienna
Belgium Emilie van Haute Université libre de Bruxelles
Brazil Pedro Floriano Ribeiro Universidade Federal de São Carlos
Canada William Cross Carleton University
Croatia Bojana Kocijan Central European University
Cyprus Christophoros Christophorou University of Nicosia
Czech Republic Lukas Linek Czech Academy of Sciences
Denmark Karina Kosiara-Pedersen University of Copenhagen
Estonia Vello Pettai University of Tartu
Finland Jussi Westinen Åbo Akademi University
France Pascal Delwit Université libre de Bruxelles
Germany Tim Spier Universität Siegen
Hungary Zsolt Enyedi Central European University
Iceland Indridi Indridason University of California, Riverside
Ireland Liam Weeks University College Cork
Israel Ofer Kenig The Israel Democracy Institute
Italy Giulia Sandri Université catholique de Lille
Latvia Jānis Ikstens University of Latvia
Lithuania Mažvydas Jastramskis University of Vilnius
Mexico Viviens Sierens Université libre de Bruxelles
Netherlands Ruud Koole Leiden University
Joop van Holsteyn Leiden University
Josje den Ridder Leiden University
Gerrit Voerman University of Groningen
Norway Knut Heidar University of Oslo
Anders Ravik Jupskås University of Oslo
Poland Anna Paczesniak University of Wroclaw
Portugal Paula Espirito Santo Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa
Romania Sorina Soare Universita degli studi di Firenze
Alexandra Ionascu University of Bucharest
Slovakia Michal Zemanik University of Bratislava
Slovenia Alenka Krasovec University of Ljubljana
Spain Oscar Barberà Universitat de Valencia
Juan Rodriguez Teruel Universitat de Valencia
Sweden Niklas Bolin Mid Sweden University
Switzerland Andreas Ladner Université de Lausanne
United Kingdom Lynn Bennie University of Aberdeen